1 | Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts. |
2 | They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. |
3 | "Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; |
4 | even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. |
5 | "To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? |
6 | Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! |
7 | They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. |
8 | "Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors, |
9 | remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, |
10 | declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, `My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' |
11 | calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. |
12 | "Hearken to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from deliverance: |
13 | I bring near my deliverance, it is not far off, and my salvation will not tarry; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory." |
1 | Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chalde'ans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. |
2 | Take the millstones and grind meal, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers. |
3 | Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no man. |
4 | Our Redeemer -- the LORD of hosts is his name -- is the Holy One of Israel. |
5 | Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chalde'ans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. |
6 | I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. |
7 | You said, "I shall be mistress for ever," so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. |
8 | Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children": |
9 | These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. |
10 | You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." |
11 | But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate; and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing. |
12 | Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror. |
13 | You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. |
14 | Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! |
15 | Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own direction; there is no one to save you. |
1 | Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. |
2 | For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name. |
3 | "The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. |
4 | Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, |
5 | I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, `My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them.' |
6 | "You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known. |
7 | They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, `Behold, I knew them.' |
8 | You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel. |
9 | "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. |
10 | Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. |
11 | For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. |
12 | "Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am He, I am the first, and I am the last. |
13 | My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. |
14 | "Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chalde'ans. |
15 | I, even I, have spoken and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. |
16 | Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there." And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit. |
17 | Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. |
18 | O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; |
19 | your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me." |
20 | Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chalde'a, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!" |
21 | They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed out. |
22 | "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked." |